Doddle’s team of runners to collect parcels from where the consumer is

Wednesday 05 August 2015 - Veebs Sabharwal

Doddle, the purple network of parcel stores, has launched a new service which it believes is the simplest way to send items anywhere in the UK. Unlike many of the innovations in the parcel sector, it doesn’t use drones or robots; the service is simply based on people power.

Doddle Runner is a new service featuring specially trained Runners who will come and collect parcels from customers so that there’s no need to leave their desk, home or even the café they might be sat in to send a parcel. In a few taps of the app, one of Doddle’s Runners will come to a customer wherever they are within EC1-EC4, in under an hour to collect your parcel. Once handed over, Doddle will wrap, post and track the parcel, sending it to the chosen destination via a best price next day delivery service. The launch of Doddle Runner negates the need to ever queue to send a parcel again.

The Doddle Runner app enables consumers to take a picture of what they want to send or return, then pop in the delivery address or select which retailer they want to return it to. The service is available via the new Doddle Runner app which is now available for iOS devices via the App Store, with an Android version due to launch later this year.

The service is currently available in select parts of East London and will be rolled out across the capital over the coming months. To launch Runner, Doddle has recruited a team of five Runners with plans to recruit a further seven over the coming weeks.

Tim Robinson, Doddle CEO, said: “We’ve all had those moments when we realise we need to get a parcel to someone for the next day, but we’re short on time to send it, or we’re running out of time to return something bought online that we don’t want.

Doddle Runner solves this problem by coming to you and getting your parcels to where they need to be. We’ll do the running around so you don’t have to. In designing Doddle Runner we wanted to create a service that we would like to use as customers, no hassle and no worries.”

Doddle Runners can collect up to five parcels weighing up to 16kg each, with maximum combined dimensions of 150cm (longest side can be 60cm). The service costs £5 plus postage and the Doddle Runner app will provide a price estimate on the postage cost before the parcel is collected.